Tuesday, February 27, 2007

1. The only film I saw that was nominated for an Oscar in any category this year was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (it won for visual effects and was nominated for art direction and sound).

2. Of the last 20 Best Picture winners, I have seen 12, and only 2 since 2000. Of these, my favorite is probably Dances with Wolves.

3. Despite #1 and #2, I have won the Oscar pool 3 of the last 4 years at my school (I tied with 4 other people this year because of upsets in the obscure categories).

4. No one has done as good a job at hosting the Oscars as Billy Crystal did. His Hannibal Lecter entrance in 1992 was priceless! The distinction of worst host in my lifetime goes unquestioningly to David Letterman.

5. I was born in the year of Midnight Cowboy, graduated the year Michael Douglas and Cher earned Oscars and got married most recently the year ¾ of the soundtrack to The Lion King was nominated for music Oscars.

6. The first Oscar show I can remember watching was in 1979. It was Johnny Carson’s first time hosting, and I remember thinking he was funny. I also remember Kramer vs. Kramer winning for Best Picture. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) won a lifetime achievement Oscar that year, too. By the time he won the award, I had seen Star Wars more than 20 times.

7. The earliest Best Picture winning film I have seen in its entirety is Casablanca (1943). I have only seen parts of Gone with the Wind (1939) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).

8. I still have no idea how Rocky managed to win Best Picture in 1976. All the President’s Men was a much better film.

9. Of the last 20 Best Foreign Language Film winners, I’m sad to report that I have seen only 5. The last one was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in 2000. My favorite of all these is Life is Beautiful.

10. When Al Gore started his acceptance speech for An Inconvenient Truth with the phrase, “My fellow Americans…” I, as well as the entire membership of the Democratic party, stopped what they were doing and wondered, just for a split second, if he was really going to enter the race.